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Sat, 11 Jun 2016 19:21:36 +0000en-UShourly1BrandedOutLoudhttps://feedburner.google.comGetting the Best Event Photos for Your Nonprofithttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/unASuGjOgnA/
https://branded4good.com/getting-the-best-event-photos-for-your-nonprofit/#respondSat, 11 Jun 2016 19:21:36 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=39590It’s the beginning of summer (yay!) and many of you are gearing up for those summer and fall special events. Where does photo planning land on your to-do list? We live in a really visual world and when it comes to marketing and design, photos (and videos) rule that world. Everything is being simplified, from your messaging to your page layouts on your website – which means photos can literally make or break your design and your overall marketing and development campaign. Can you see why they might be pushed to the top of that to-do list?

Take it from someone who has sifted through literally thousands of amateur and professional photos – trying to find that holy grail piece that will fit perfectly into a campaign, getting the right shot can be challenging.

Basic Rules

Take & Use High Quality Photos

Your phone very likely takes high resolution photos automatically – the problem often lies in how the photo is handled after it’s taken. If you are sending it to Dropbox or somewhere else online, you usually have an option to choose the size of the photo you want to send. Always choose the largest file size – which may mean that emailing the photo is not an option as many email service providers limit the size of files they will send or receive. Once the photos are off your phone or camera, leave the editing to someone who knows how to edit photos. This way the photos don’t get altered and saved as smaller files that may not work for the project you need to use the photos for. As a general rule of thumb, any photo with a file size of under 1 mb is not a full resolution photo and its uses will be very limited. Check out iPhone Camera Tips & Tricks.

Look Into Their Eyes

Avoid taking photos of people wearing sunglasses and hats. Not that you always have to literally avoid them – if it’s appropriate, ask them to remove items that block their eyes. It’s important that we see their eyes clearly for maximum impact. Looking cool and remote is probably not going to be part of the message you want to convey. Photos of the backs of people’s heads has the same effect.

Look at your background and foreground

Yes, photoshop is a great tool to fix problem areas, but most people don’t have the skill to easily remove a problematic background. It really only takes a second to scan the background – avoid any giant blank walls or anything that looks dirty (unless that is the look you are going for) or strange. It’s usually not a big deal to ask people to move to a different area for the photo. Check the foreground for objects blocking your shot or objects people are holding (ask them to put them down). Avoid chain link fences in the background unless the people being photographed are playing baseball (and it’s really obvious they are playing baseball). I have a client that sent me a whole bunch of photos of children playing outside at their facility but constantly surrounded by a really old and unattractive chain-link fence so it actually looked like they were somehow being corralled. Examples – 2 beautiful photos – 1) best background ever and 2) worst background ever – Photoshop will be required! If all else fails, just go outside where you will likely find greenery!

Other Considerations

Think about the story you are telling

Events are easy because the story is what is happening at the event. Tell the story from the beginning with shots of the planning process, event day set up, each event activity in order and event cleanup. This gives you so much flexibility to do a “making of” sequential photo gallery or at the very least give you a wide variety of activities to choose from so it’s not all posed photos of the same thing. Think about telling the story of a specific person at the event and be sure to get photos of them throughout the evening.

In addition to telling the story through a series of photos, take photos that tell the story all by themselves. These are the “money shots.” You can just take a bunch of photos and hope you happen to catch a money shot or you can increase your chances of success by plotting out some ideas. If your event is a walkathon or marathon, then more than one photographer needs to be at that finish line or when the awards are handed out. If awards are handed out, don’t wait for the posed shot with the award perfectly in hand – even an iPhone can take photos in quick succession to capture a surprise reaction.

One client was taking photos of their staff/volunteers delivering meals to seniors – they got the general story photographed, people getting out of the car with coolers of food, people standing in groups, close-ups of the food, but not a single photo of a person handing the food over to a senior or even just holding the food so that a single photo could be used to tell the story. Setting up the photo (or improving your chances of getting that photo) to get the whole story within that one photo, helps you tell your story even more clearly.

Example of a photo that tells the whole story without text:

Think about everything you want the event to convey and make a list; i.e.

we want to show the event is successful and well-attended (make sure you get larger crowd shots)

we want to show that we have well-known contributors which lends credibility (make sure to get specific shots of those contributors)

we want to show our commitment to our cause (think about what types of photos would show that)

we want to show how happy our clients/consumers are (get laughing/smiling group shots of clients)

Once specific photo scenarios are outlined, turn it into a day-of-the-event checklist of photos needed.

Skip the Useless Shots AKA No one really cares about your auction items after the auction is over

Sure take a couple of artsy shots of some of the beautifully packaged items but no overall view of the whole table or people bending over the items. Of all the photos you can pick from to show what you do, your impact, or even what your event was about, the auction table offers no real value. Same with raffle prizes. After a client’s annual walkathon, they spend a fair amount of time giving out raffle and other prizes to clients as part of the event – and the photographer invariably takes a LOT of photos. Which should never be posted online or used in any way, because you never want a donor to look at them and think – is this where my money is going? It doesn’t matter if the prizes were all donated – no one looking at the photos will know that. Think about what value photos have in presenting your brand to the world. Example from a marathon event:

Get a Commemorative Photo of the Event

I love these kinds of photos, that sort of hodgepodge event mementos – they work really well as the start or finish of an event photo gallery to post on Facebook and your website. These can be creative and fun and add some visual interest to a gallery – breaking up all the people photos!

Types of Photos

Super zoomed in close-up

These can be stunningly beautiful photos. But keep in mind that their use is limited. Because the photo is so close-up, a lot of visual cues that are part of the photo’s story are missing i.e. where is the person, what are they doing, what are they wearing – which means the photo cannot stand on its own and tell your story.

These photos are great for showing and evoking emotion with an up-close stark reality and work well for annual report covers or materials that have enough supportive text and other photos/content to help tell your complete story. I don’t necessarily recommend super close-up photos on the main page of your site in the slideshow as people only have a few seconds to decide if they are staying or going. Having extra visual cues in the photo could help sway that decision. If you really capture something evocative in that close-up it could work as a slideshow photo.

In this example there are no visual cues because of the super close-up photo AND no immediate text cues – the text used is a very generic, overused message, “Changing Lives,” that does nothing to let people know what this site is all about.

Bottom line – closeup photos are big and need to be presented big – they generally won’t work on your Facebook timeline or as internal photos on your website but they can have powerful impact if paired with equally impactful text.

Portrait Vs. Landscape Photos

I personally don’t like portrait photos unless you are actually doing head-shots for your staff or board page. Horizontal/landscape photos have the ultimate flexibility as landscape photos are pretty much standard fare for use in website slideshows, website header images, and Facebook cover images. In Facebook posts, landscape photos are given preference with bigger all-the-way across-the-page placement while portrait photos are are given a smaller amount of space and end up far less noticeable in your feed (or with parts cut off at the top and bottom). Landscape photos also look better in photo galleries. So turn that phone on it’s side when you take photos!

For the example below – notice how this photo is landscape and not a super closeup and see how that opens up the possibilities :

the full size photo would work great as a website main page slideshow graphic – especially with all the sky above which is perfect for adding text messaging

it can be easily cropped to a good size for a Facebook header or a closer view for a website slideshow

It can be easily cropped even shorter to create a narrow header for a website subpage

AND it can be cropped to pull out a perfect portrait photo if needed.

If this was taken as a portrait photo to begin with, then only #4 would have been a possibility; if the photo was taken as a landscape but up-close photo, only #1 would have been a possibility.

]]>https://branded4good.com/getting-the-best-event-photos-for-your-nonprofit/feed/0https://branded4good.com/getting-the-best-event-photos-for-your-nonprofit/Freeing Your Nonprofit Logo from a Taglinehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/XFNTwP4x3Jw/
https://branded4good.com/freeing-your-nonprofit-logo-from-a-tagline/#respondMon, 30 May 2016 03:20:33 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=39538Just as the Miss America Pageant protestors did in the 1960s when they dumped their bras, girdles and other “instruments of torture” into a Freedom trash can, nonprofits today are dumping their taglines.

So if you are at this moment, struggling to come up with a 3-5 word tagline that is genuine, unique and encompasses everything you do now and in the near future, the torture can stop. If you do use a tagline, don’t be afraid to revisit the need for one. Is your tagline really adding to your messaging or is it just getting in the way?

We looked at over 150 well-known nonprofits to find out what they were doing with their taglines. 70% of them were NOT using taglines as part of their logo.

Reasons why it might be better to not have a tagline attached to your logo:

You have more flexibility with your messaging – you are not tied to just one – and you can place your tagline in a far more prominent spot on your website or marketing materials. This extra flexibility also makes it easier to update you tagline / messaging depending on the circumstances.

Pulling your tagline out from under your logo also gives you more room to say want you really want to say (not just 3 -5 words).

There is a trend toward smaller headers as photos and slideshows are taking up even more space on the website’s main page. As the logos get smaller in those headers, taglines would be even more challenging to read.

Sometimes a tagline can be a distraction when you really want the focus to be on other messages on the page like a ones for a specific campaign:

Design trends are going toward simpler and cleaner both in logo design and web design. Taglines can add unnecessary clutter without adding a whole lot of value unless you have a really impactful (and that is really hard to come by in so few words).

As mission statements are getting more casual and shorter, it’s more appropriate to use them as messages on your website main page – making the tagline redundant.

Interesting Choices

When you move your tagline to a more prominent position on your website (and hopefully expand it), it still needs to make sense on its own and be something uniquely yours. Volunteers of America appear be using “This is why we do what we do” as as part of their messaging. And they trademarked it. I suppose it’s possible that the statement above it is part of the trademark – but either way – the 2nd half of that message is far too general (I actually can’t figure out why it’s trademarked) and confusing. Personally I think the message works well with the “this is why we do what we do” just entirely removed.

In this example, I love the campaign message “Someday is Today” but it appears to be overwhelming the logo and tagline – and making it look a little cluttered. This would be a great opportunity to drop the tagline and allow the focus to be on the campaign message without competition.

This is an example where the tagline can conflict with messaging. The message is so close to the tagline that it’s actually confusing – are they actually tagline part A and tagline part B? If they are supposed to go together, I think it would be more effective to leave off the tagline and put the entire message on the main page or choose one or the other for the tagline or message.

If you are going to use a tagline, I think it’s important to make sure your other messages coordinate with the tagline. In this example, the main message doesn’t seem to have anything to do with children at first glance – when their tagline is Children First. And “Saving Lives, Building Futures” is one of those bland, overused messages that just doesn’t have any real meaning. I think they would have been better off using part of their text below the message as the main message i.e. “Protecting the worlds most vulnerable children”

If you use a tagline attached to your logo, it still needs to be short and look cohesive. This one from the Y actually seems a little scattered: For Youth Development, For Healthy Living, For Social Responsibility. That seems like a lot of disparate goals – how do they work together? Is there a better concept that encompasses all 3?

]]>https://branded4good.com/freeing-your-nonprofit-logo-from-a-tagline/feed/0https://branded4good.com/freeing-your-nonprofit-logo-from-a-tagline/Is Your Nonprofit’s WordPress Site Really Secure?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/OjinZ5PK3OY/
https://branded4good.com/is-your-nonprofits-wordpress-site-really-secure/#respondTue, 15 Mar 2016 01:40:13 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=39514I resisted using WordPress for a long time. WordPress sites were used for blogs more than full websites and everyone talked about WordPress being vulnerable to attacks. And I had seen firsthand how hackers can destroy a WordPress site – it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t easy to fix.

But WordPress has grown into a great content management system, flexible enough to handle a lot of customization and a perfect solution for nonprofits that want to update their own sites. So, what about security?

First, we need to understand that in today’s world, nothing is really 100% safe. Not our phones, not our emails, not our personal information stored anywhere. Unless we want to separate ourselves from our technology and decide not to live in the modern world, we need to take extra steps to ensure security and have backup plans in place.

Yes – WordPress is often a big target for attacks. Not because of some inherent ongoing vulnerability in the core WordPress software but because a) it’s the most popular content management system with a 26% share of the market worldwide and b) individuals and organizations using WordPress often leave their websites vulnerable.

The Three Big Things

Be selective about what Plug-ins are used.

WordPress comes with some great built-in functionality but the best part of WordPress is the ability to add functionality with plug-ins designed by other people outside of WordPress. Stick with the plugins that are most popular and have higher ratings (the plugin author has more motivation to keep the plugin updated) and check to see if the plugin actually is updated often by the author. The more often a plugin is updated the better. See: How to Choose Trustworthy WordPress Themes and Plugins

Update the WordPress software and plugins when updates are available.

You will get notices in the wp-admin backend when these updates are available. These updates will sometimes be security patches because a vulnerability was found so it’s crucial to stay on top of them. Check with your webmaster to determine the best day/time to do these updates (at least once per month) – they may need to be on standby in case there is an issue with an update.

NOTE: If you are doing a website makeover, make sure whomever is creating your new site does NOT archive the old site on the server unless you plan to keep tabs on it and regularly update the software and plugins for it. Most people don’t keep tabs on it and your site can be attached through these old files.

Set up secure user ids and passwords.

Never use Admin or Administrator as your user name. It’s the first thing attackers try when they are trying to log into your account. Don’t use your organization name all spelled out or your name if it’s prominently associated with the website. For your password, don’t use any word that is in the dictionary – even when combined with numbers or capital letters or other words found in the dictionary.

Programmers will always give you these hideous passwords with completely random letters and characters; these are ideal but you don’t have to go that route to be secure. You can use a made-up word or an amalgam of words combined or abbreviations with numbers / characters that have meaning to you (but preferably not something you use for all your passwords) and capitalizations.

Other Security Factors

Choose a web host that provides extra security

All web hosts are not created equal – and I definitely have my favorites. So will your programmers – but programmers tend to look for different things in a host; i.e. lots of power for a low cost (often with no bells and whistles unless the programmer creates them) – they don’t need control panels or easy to access security and backups because they can do it in the code. But trust me, you will want those things so you can do stuff if needed.

My top 4 requirements are:

1) 24/7 customer service by PHONE (not chat or email only) and

2) big enough brand name that I know they are not likely to disappear and

3) easy to use control panel and

4) the host provides some kind of malware detector on their end.

For extra security, obtain a dedicated IP address (so you don’t need to share an IP address with other people) and set up an SSL certificate (this is a must for all nonprofits collecting personal information in donation forms etc.)

My 2 favorite hosts:
InMotion – I love their security features (and have had direct experiences with those features catching problems before they became real problems) and Go Daddy – they have the best customer service and I completely trust that any problem will get fixed quickly. Keep in mind that no host is 100% perfect or 100% up all the time.

Add WordPress Security plugins

I personally love WordFence – and recommend getting the premium version. Wordfence provides real time prevention and you get immediate notices when someone is trying to log into your account. You can block specific countries and you can set up two-factor authentication which requires your login info AND code sent to your cell phone.

Backup your site at least weekly.

I use UpDraft Plus – which is a WordPress plugin that lets you easily backup your entire WordPress site including the database. What I really like about it is that you can set it to backup to your DropBox account. I prefer having backups stored completely offsite and easily accessible if you need them. Just as an extra precaution, it’s good to set up backups from your web host account in the control panel as well. Make sure key staff members are getting copies of backups, not just your IT person / webmaster.

Additional Reading

]]>https://branded4good.com/is-your-nonprofits-wordpress-site-really-secure/feed/0https://branded4good.com/is-your-nonprofits-wordpress-site-really-secure/The 4 Jobs Your Nonprofit Website Needs to Performhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/2k2pdJogyVY/
https://branded4good.com/the-4-roles-of-your-nonprofit-website/#respondFri, 29 Jan 2016 01:09:50 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=39481When making over a nonprofit’s website, I get a lot of questions (and opinions) about how much and what types of content should be on the new site. Should content be scaled back so the site is light and fluffy and focuses in on important messages only? Should the site be as robust and deep in content as possible for people doing research or just need the details before making a buying decision? I think the site can do both, and more. These are the 4 main areas that I think a nonprofit website should be focused on:

Show your impact

This doesn’t mean asking for funds all the time; some nonprofits will turn their entire site into a fundraising vehicle during their end-of-year appeal but then they go back to an impact / informational site afterward. Showing your impact means reporting regularly on your programs and accomplishments – with lots of visual components – so that when people come to your website they see that you are active (programs are alive and well), progressive (doing something different than all the other nonprofits), and making progress (getting results).

This is where a lot of nonprofits struggle – information about the programs is easy and doesn’t necessarily change that often. Keeping people updated regularly about what is going on in those programs takes more staff time. And I’m talking about updating people on the website – not through social media alone; compare the number of fans you have on social media that you are actually reaching vs. the number of website visitors you have each month. Regular program updates (with photos) need to become part of a regular process for staff and committees.

Give Information

For nonprofits that have active programs where clients come in and participate, they still need to provide all the info needed for those programs (including how to sign up) as a sales tool to get new people signed up AND giving current clients info they need like a calendar of events and activities, and important news and updates. For nonprofits that have advocacy as part of their mission, they need to have information on the topics they are advocating for.

The best way to keep a website “light” is to clean up the menu structure so it’s not so complicated to find stuff. And if you are heavy in content, to make that content easy to scan (with headers, bigger text, space between lines, and graphical relief) and if the content is really heavy, put it into a pdf format so people can download and/or print to read at their leisure.

United Way is a great example of a site with a clean menu – only 4 options for their main menu – Impact, Partners (showing credibility), Get Involved, and The Latest (a content-heavy area for news, resources, research, and publications all done in a blog format).

Build Credibility

Donors and grantors need to know that you are a credible nonprofit that will take care of their hard-earned money once they give it. They need to know that you are well-connected through partnerships in the community (groups you belong to, collaborate with, supporters), that your board appears strong and robust (with people from a variety of positions and backgrounds), that you have real people working for you (photos and contact info for your staff), that you are a leader in your community (publishing or participating in reports/papers, sponsoring or hosting symposiums or some other way that shows you know your industry), and that you are financially sound (through annual reports and financials).

People need to feel like they know you before they become involved and although you really want them to get to know you in person, the reality is that your website is likely going to be the first place they go to check you out. It’s really your receptionist. So it has to be well-dressed, guide people quickly to where they want to go, and provide in-depth information when needed.

Archive Information

One of the benefits of the website is the ability to store important news and items that can be viewed at a later date by your constituents. Many nonprofits post all kinds of interesting materials on Facebook only, where they will literally be seen once by a small group of people and then never seen again as they get farther and farther down the Facebook timeline. This is why a website needs to include a blog / news area that can be categorized by topic; this way you post any important information on your website and THEN post it to Facebook – driving people from Facebook to your website, while archiving the news for others to view later.

A lot of smaller nonprofits spend more time curating other people’s news rather than posting their own news. It’s just easier. Curating news is an important function for all nonprofits – there is a lot of news and information out there that your constituents might be interested in. But instead of posting a link on social media to someone else’s site, try taking some of the outside news items and writing about them – adding your own commentary or information to it as an article on your website. Or have a collaborative partner or associate write an article (or repost a previous article) for your website. It’s essentially still curating other people’s news but creates content for your website.

Examples

Direct Relief International focuses on impact (earthquake recovery continues), information (El Nino health risks, and lots of news from their own blog) and credibility (Charity Navigator’s list and Fast Company as well as supporters)

Unicef – on the main page they focus more on impact and credibility and put their news/information on internal pages

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Here is another organization that is focused on all the objectives: impact, information, credibility, and archiving through their blog.

]]>https://branded4good.com/the-annual-campaign-song-sung-to-the-tune-of-winter-wonderland/feed/0https://branded4good.com/the-annual-campaign-song-sung-to-the-tune-of-winter-wonderland/Product Ideas For Your Nonprofit’s Online Storehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/jsezmPNwkLU/
https://branded4good.com/product-ideas-for-your-nonprofits-online-store/#respondSun, 22 Nov 2015 01:32:27 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=39347I love promotional products. And I love them even more when they are used to generate real income for nonprofits instead of just as marketing giveaways. I also think selling products is a great way to introduce your nonprofit to Millennials; and the only reason I think this is because last year I was making a donation to World Wildlife Fund and selecting what animal to sponsor, when the Millennial girls in my office went crazy when they saw the cute stuffed animals you get when you donate and all decided to donate….purely motivated by the stuffed animals, which was literally the last thing on my mind!

Selecting Products

1. Sell something that has the potential to be used regularly and seen by others. A Christmas ornament or a shot glass aren’t likely to be used as often as a t-shirt or a bracelet. Smaller things are also not as likely to be noticed by other people – like a mousepad or keychain or pen.

2. Make the products appropriate for your constituents. Imprinted shot glasses and flasks may not be appropriate for your nonprofit (although I love the sparkly pink flask sold by the Kennedy Center). It’s cool to try to tie in products to your mission i.e. a health-related nonprofit selling pedometers but all the products do not need to tie in directly with your mission or services in any way, they just need to fit in with whatever image your nonprofit wants to portray and not go directly against your core values. It’s your message on the products that will tie that product to your nonprofit.

3. Which brings us to what should go ON your products. Unless you have the coolest logo ever, the focus of the design on the product should be on a message – whether it’s your tagline, or a specific campaign or event message. Your logo alone is not likely to drive people to buy the product. It needs to really look good and have an important message that people relate to. It also needs to be uniquely yours – which means not buying a standard white shirt and slapping that logo up, but creating a piece of art that someone wants to own and show off to the world.

Check out the examples of popular products below from other nonprofit’s store and for information on how to set up an online store, check out this article from Tech Soup: 10 Ways Nonprofits Can Use an Online Store

Vintage / Retro

Who doesn’t love anything retro? Those of us in the Gen X and Baby Boomer categories have the spending power and love to shop online AND reminisce about the good old days!

Vintage Style Personal First Aid Kit from American Red Cross

Long-sleeved vintage distressed tiger shirt from Big Cat Rescue

Live Free – military green t-shirt from The Boot Campaign

Vintage men’s photo tee from the Sundance Institute

Retro running socks from The Color Run

Sixties life love and music ceramic mug

Dove tie-dye shirt from To Write Love On Her Arms

Love in Motion throwback 1981 tee from Pride Twin Cities

The Bracelet

Isn’t everyone tired of those rubber bracelets by now? For guys – don’t they pull on your arm hair? They may make great giveaways, but think about these lovely alternatives…

Triple gold bangle arrow bracelets from Stand Up 2 Cancer

Bracelet with color logo charm from National Public Radio

Elastic tie bracelet (4-pack) from To Write Love On Her Arms

Not One More leather bracelet from EveryTown for Gun Safety

Beanies & Scarves

Love the winter-wear items – and Millennials love beanies!

Navy/Red knit beanie from Team USA

Gray fleece beanie cap from the National MS Society

Knit scarf from Stupid Cancer

Jacquard knit scarf from Autism Speaks

Tote Bags

Notice that the bags don’t have the nonprofit’s logo as their main focal point; the Tenement bag uses recycled materials to create a really interesting look, the Civil War Trust uses a great campaign logo and message, Corazon de Vida brilliantly uses a part of their logo as the O in Love, I Had Cancer uses their bag as a motivational piece, (RED) has a very creative bag to showcase their message and the American Heart Association uses the giant heart to showcase their message of healthy eating as a piece of art!

Tote bag from Tenement Museum

Campaign 1776 tote bag from Civil War Trust

Give Love tote bag from Corazon de Vida

The inspirational tote from I Had Cancer

FEED special edition love 30 bag from (RED)

American heart laminated tote bag from American Heart Association

Tank Tops & T-Shirts

If you really want women to get excited about wearing your tank tops and t-shirts, make sure they are flattering to women! Which means trying to avoid the boat neck, man-sleeve variety – EVERYONE looks good in v-necks or a deeper round neckline – they elongate you! And again – focus on a great message, not your logo…

Motivation tank top from Susan G. Komen

You had me at vegan unisex tank top from PETA

My Brain Matters v-neck t-shirt from Alzheimer’s Association

Go Red for women from American Heart Association

Team Fox sweatshirt from Michael J. Fox Foundation

Shine a light on autism sweatshirt from Autism Speaks

Raglan checkered hoodie from The Color Run

Baseball Style Tee from Girl Scouts

License Plates

I am really surprised that license plate frames are not used more often – what a great way to showcase your message where a lot of people will see it! Far more noticeable and less in the way than a window cling…

Stupid Cancer license plate

Pennsylvania license plate from Alex’s Lemonade Stand

Metal license plate frame from Wolf Den

Metal License Plate Frame from National Peace Corps Association

Water Bottles

Let’s face it -water bottles can be a really boring thing to imprint, which is why you have to go BIG and make it look good with your own unique design (that still goes with your brand).

Equality water bottle from Human Rights Campaign

Pterosaur origami stainless steel water bottle from American Museum of Natural History

Polka dot water bottle from The Color Run

MIZU water bottle from Charity: Water

Other Stuff to Wear

You don’t have to stick to t-shirts for wearable items – here are some creative examples!

Brown flip flops from 4-H

Hands down the best watch around watch from All Hands Volunteers

Silk bow tie from Live Strong

Rainbow block socks from Human Rights Campaign

Hero Necklace from The Boot Campaign

Bottle cap necklace from Free2Luv

Pets

People spend a LOT of money on their pets and you don’t have to be a pet-related nonprofit to sell pet products…

Setting character and word limits – both in writing for your staff and in the code – will ensure that your article titles and article content will fit nicely within their designated spaces on the page.

In the example below, this nonprofit’s main page is pulling in blog articles with a wide variety of title and text lengths which makes the page look sloppy. Setting up title parameters to keep the title no longer than 2 lines (A below) will keep that title lined up with the date on the right and content parameters (i.e. how many characters or words to have before the Read More link) would help keep big blank spaces off the page and prevent text from flowing below the accompanying photo on the left (C below). All of which makes a cleaner, more visually appealing page.

Also check for any miscellaneous icons that your article feed is generating like this little folder icon – and get rid of anything that could distract (B below). It doesn’t have to be Stepford perfect, just in alignment enough for people to feel like all is right with the world when they come to you site (even if they don’t know exactly why)!

2. Give yourself some white space

Check all your images and see if you have enough space around the edges so the images / graphics don’t look like they’ve been cut off.

In the example, the Request a Greeter button (A below) looks squished with very little white space above and below the text, and it doesn’t coordinate well with the Donate button which has a different amount of spacing around it.

For the 3 square ads / graphics in the footer, each needs to be adjusted to allow more white space all around between the graphic and its border (B below). The middle one technically just needed more space at the top but looks fine adjusted all the way around as well. And for the last item (C below), we all at some point get stuck with a logo we have to accommodate on the site that may not be a transparent gif or the specific color we need so that it shows up well on our site background. Ideally you would want to contact the logo owner and ask for options that can be used on your site, but if they don’t have those options, try creating a box behind the logo in the color of the logo background (with enough white space) instead of trying to crop the background out.

3. But not too much white space

White space is a valuable part of design, but sometimes too much white space just becomes dead space – especially if it interrupts a website visitor’s flow through your site.

I see this a lot with scrolling sites where the long main page is divided into logical sections of content (hopefully an exact screenful) usually separated by color in the background. I’m not sure if pre-designed WordPress templates are just extra generous with spacing between sections or if WordPress programmers are feeling the grandiosity and wonder of their own designs and leaving in these ginormous spaces because they can. But as a person is scrolling down, all they want to do is get to the next section more quickly – not stare at blank spaces as they scroll. It’s very easy to leave enough padding to look good but get rid of any significant gaps that could disrupt the flow.

4. Think about scale

With the ‘go big or go home’ trend in website content, we are seeing lots of big text, big photos, and big graphics on websites these days, and it’s important to keep everything close to the same scale.

In the example below, this oversized site shows the tiniest social media icons. We show an alternative that is more in line with the scale of the site overall. We used squares to not be too similar to the large photo circle above it but still tying in with other square elements on the page.

5. Keep your program photos big

Thumbnail photos are still appropriate for certain areas of your site like secondary news items where the photo is not as important as the news itself; but larger photos should be used to show program impact. In the example below, the nonprofit has a program participant profile as the main photo and then a slider below it with tiny photos that are also program participant profiles. Enlarging the photos doesn’t take up much more room but they are now more impactful and website visitors are more likely to click on them to read more.

Also – because the page was fairly photo-heavy (even before making the 3 photos larger), the ad next to the main photo promoting the walkathon doesn’t really stand out and actually looks like it’s part of the main photo when it’s not. So in our “After” mockup we show what it would look like with a simpler white background, using the event logo, which helps it to stand out on its own.

6. Make it easier for people to get to the info they need

Since content management systems have flourished, website menu systems have become more easily convoluted. I often see an item on a main page that links to a landing page consisting of only one paragraph with a Read More link and then you have to click again to actually get to the article. There used to be a one-click rule, that everything on your site had to be reached with one click. This is unreasonable these days as sites are getting very information-heavy and you don’t really want a ton of menu options. The current rule of thumb is a 3-click rule; but if you make the person click more than once to get info, make sure that the interim pages are relevant and necessary.

In the same example above. the nonprofit promotes an event next to the slideshow – their annual walkathon. The button says “Register Your Team Now” – but when you click you end up on a page that has the event logo twice and you have to choose a location; this takes you to a location landing page with a brief overview of the event with another link that says “Click Here to Register.” Then you actually get to a separate microsite for the event – but not the actual registration page – you have to click AGAIN to get to that page. So in our mockup above (under #5), we show the main page ad redone with 2 buttons – one for each event location – and those buttons should take the website visitor directly to the main page of the appropriate event microsite. None of the pages skipped in this process have any info not already on the microsite, so they are not necessary.

7. Modify your site template a little

Some of the biggest indicators that a site design is outdated include: a gradient or textured background usually in darker colors, a border around the site itself, and rounded buttons with heavy gradient. Sites that look like this are really in need of complete makeovers not just because of the look, but the code is going to be outdated and it won’t be a responsive site that works well on mobile devices. But if the budget is tight and you just want to get it to look a little more modern, some simple adjustments to your style sheets can help. In this example, we did a mockup with the overall site border removed and just removed the bottom half of the background to add some brightness and openness to get rid of the boxed-in look.

8. Don’t ignore the tablet view in responsive design

For those of you who have modernized their sites with a responsive design – make sure you check what your design looks like at different widths. It’s not just about the full screen view and mobile view. Many people will have smaller computer screens or will open your site with their browser not filling the entire screen (especially for those of us who multi-task with all kinds of windows open at the same time). It’s the tablet view that is often the problem – somewhere between full screen and mobile screen.

When testing your site, open in your browser and resize your browser until that exact moment when the layout switches to tablet view. What does it look like? In the example below, the full view has 4 columns for the photos, which switches to a one column view in tablet view – but with the photos sized strangely and not looking quite right. Rather than directly switching to one column like the mobile view, it will look much better to go to 2 columns in that interim tablet view. http://m25m.org/

9. Line up your dropdown menus better

Creating dropdown menus is easy but making them look good can take a little bit of effort. You have to decide where the best placement is relative to the main menu item – centered directly below or off to the left or right and how to “connect” it visually to the main menu item so they look like they belong together. You also need to make sure the menu looks good dropped open over whatever you have below the main menu.

A good rule of thumb: if you have a straight line below the main menu items, use that line as the starting point for your dropdown menu – it will just look cleaner. In the example below, the dropdown menu starts awkwardly between the main menu item and the straight top edge of the slideshow. In our mockup, we’ve moved the top edge of the dropdown to line up with the top edge of the slideshow and added an arrow to connect it to the menu visually. This “connection” can also be done in many other ways including changing the color of the main menu tab to match the color of the dropdown.

10. Look at how your logo fits within the header

Sometimes our logos just don’t fit exactly the way we want them to whether it’s in the perfectly square social media profile boxes or on our website headers. So you can either design the website around the logo or adjust the logo to fit within the website. Either way, I’m a big fan of having slightly different variations of the logo that will work best in different specific scenarios. In the example below the nonprofit was clearly going for a slimline top menu that would not take up too much space as a fixed menu (that stays in place as the website visitor scrolls down the page); but their logo is an awkward size to really keep it slimline so they ended up with a big chunk of wasted space below the menu. One option would be to push the logo down into the slideshow as a banner look (option 1) or to create a horizontal version of the logo that would fit better (option 2).

]]>https://branded4good.com/10-quick-design-fixes-to-improve-your-nonprofit-website/feed/0https://branded4good.com/10-quick-design-fixes-to-improve-your-nonprofit-website/Giving Tuesday – Is it Really Worth the Effort?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/_sfizk0BOYM/
https://branded4good.com/giving-tuesday-is-it-really-worth-the-effort/#respondTue, 15 Sep 2015 23:01:06 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=39181I really don’t get the purpose of Giving Tuesday from a donor’s perspective. Mostly because it’s hard to imagine that a newly created giving day is suddenly going to inspire me to give more or differently… especially after spending all my money shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What exactly would motivate the donor?

The Science of Giving articles on the Giving Tuesday website are great and I can certainly see how warm and fuzzy thoughts lead to helping and giving – but there is nothing warm and fuzzy about the Giving Tuesday concept, at least not on its own. And yet, I see nonprofits “participating” by downloading a Giving Tuesday logo, slapping it up on their website and as email headers and Facebook cover photos and then waiting for the money to roll in…with no other real campaign theme or concept or tie-in to their annual campaign.

There are a lot of very useful webinars, articles, and videos to help nonprofits gear up for the day including Blackbaud’s #Giving Tuesday: Connected Learning webinars coming up in the next couple of months. But to me it sounds a little misleading to say “we are going to help you with that day” as if Giving Tuesday was the only star of the show. In reality, nonprofits need to know how to leverage the Giving Tuesday brand and buzz as part of the nonprofit’s overall annual campaign.

To help clear up the confusion as to how Giving Tuesday fits in with everything else, I’d love to see these warnings on the Giving Tuesday site:

WARNING: Giving Tuesday only provides a rallying point for your campaign – warm fuzzies are NOT included and must be supplied by your nonprofit. It might seem tempting to a nonprofit to leave the Giving Tuesday concept as a stand-alone expecting donors to be motivated just because they are told it’s THE day to give. That’s not really a big motivator by itself. We still need the stories and really compelling reasons to give and some other motivation other than everyone else is doing it!

CAUTION: Donation results may appear larger than they are. On many of the Giving Tuesday examples / case studies, the campaigns appear to have actually less to do with their attachment to Giving Tuesday and more to do with the creativity and strength of the fundraising campaign in general. It seems likely to me that in a lot of cases, the fact that the campaign started or ended on Giving Tuesday was not a huge factor in the success of the campaign. And how do you really tally those results? Donors may have given the same amount on a different day, or the nonprofit may have had the same increase over the last year purely because the campaign in general was really well done. What would really be interesting to see is a donor survey to find out what impact Giving Tuesday actually has on donor’s giving behavior. Are donors going to rise to the challenge and accept this new giving day or will they dread it like a 20-year old guy with a limited budget on Valentine’s Day.

DANGER: Success may be slippery without corporate partners. If you really think about what group is going to be most excited about the prospect of Giving Tuesday (aside from nonprofits with really high hopes), it’s going to be businesses who love the potential for all the publicity and buzz that the new day designation invokes. A lot of the case studies and stories where a large increase in donations is seen, seem to involve nonprofits that have significantly partnered with corporations as part of their campaign.

CAUTION – Extra marketing may be required. I called a handful of friends that I know donate regularly to ask them if they donate more on Giving Tuesday than other times of the year – and I was hit with “What is Giving Tuesday?” which actually surprised me. It may take a few more years for it to become a household name like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I’m very curious to know if the Giving Tuesday peeps have a global marketing budget to go with the global movement.

Resource

Sarasota County’s Giving Challenge 2015
This is a great video from The Philanthropy Show and the topic of this episode is Giving Days and specifically Sarasota County’s Giving Challenge 2015. The Paterson Foundation of Sarasota County is an integral part of the campaign, matching gifts, encouraging new donors to give to nonprofits they don’t usually support. They talk about the importance of both matching gift partnerships / corporate partnerships.

]]>https://branded4good.com/giving-tuesday-is-it-really-worth-the-effort/feed/0https://branded4good.com/giving-tuesday-is-it-really-worth-the-effort/Anatomy of an Almost Perfect Nonprofit Web Pagehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BrandedOutLoud/~3/GtfFIh4oluA/
https://branded4good.com/anatomy-of-an-almost-perfect-nonprofit-web-page/#commentsTue, 14 Jul 2015 06:01:43 +0000https://branded4good.com/?p=38981I always call the main page of a nonprofit website it’s front window – like the front window display of a retail store. It has to make people stop and look with a clean but creative layout, a focal point, and key pieces that will appeal to your window shoppers enough to draw them further in to explore. Too sparse or too cluttered and people will walk by; unchanged from the last time they were there and people will think the store is going out of business. Camfed, a nonprofit that helps children in Africa, has done a magnificent job preparing their front window…

The first thing you notice is that they have carefully plotted out 4 distinct areas of the main page, each taking up a “screenful so that as you scroll down you are neatly taken to the next area/screenful.

What Makes It Great

1. The header is short (vertically) so you get to the meat of the page right away – it’s not important to have everything “above the fold” these days, people are willing and able to scroll to find out more, but it does help to get your main message above the fold. The logo is also nicely sized to not take up too much space (easier for a horizontal logo) but still have s significant enough presence that other elements on the page do not dominate it.

2. The main menu has only 6 options (including the Donate button) – more than 8 menu options can be overwhelming for visitors who want to decide very quickly where they will explore next. They also use an extended dropdown menu; traditional dropdown menus are not as user-friendly because it’s too easy to accidentally move your cursor off the menu and lose it entirely. Extended menus also allow you to showcase additional media like photos and videos – make sure the main menu item will still take your visitor to a page without having to click on a submenu item – in case they can’t decide where to go next.

3. The slideshow is very easy to navigate – you can see exactly what slides are available and skip directly to the ones that interest you the most. The slides also cover a nice variety of topics including their monthly giving program, news items, current projects, stories, and a call to action (to donate, share, or sign up).

4. An assertive donate button – while the slides are not necessarily set up as specific donation pitches, each slide does contain a Donate button – making it clear what they really want you to do and making it as easy as possible to donate as the whim hits you.

5. Visitors have 2 opportunities to sign up for their e-newsletter – once in the news section and again in the footer. Only one email ask doesn’t cut it anymore, assertiveness gets better results.

6. The news area is very clean and balanced– the photos are the exact same size and the text area for each news item is clearly contained so that it cannot spill out beyond the photo and make everything look unbalanced (and mess up that perfect screenful)!

7. I love this trend toward simple social media integration without necessarily spewing all your social media posts onto your main page – which can get very cluttered. The single post approach works very well with Twitter and keeps your content fresh every time you tweet.

8. The join our worldwide community call to action is brief and on point (no need to post your entire annual appeal letter) and showing specific campaigns and campaign progress is a great way to get a potential donor’s attention. I wish more nonprofits would put their current projects / appeals on their main pages; it gives donors a quick view of what is going on in your nonprofit (and what your priorities are) and allows them to direct exactly where their money goes.

9. I love the extended footer trend – it gives you more valuable real estate that shows up on every page of your site. Having the e-news signup as the first item in the footer means it’s the first thing people see after they finish reading or scanning your page and it’s a perfect opportunity to engage them.

10. The footer is also the perfect opportunity to grab a visitor’s attention with a great photo or a featured video, a shortcut list of important links (or a repeat of the top menu), social media links, and contact information. Camfed also took advantage of this space to add what I call the Credibility Corner – badges / logos / statistics that show you are a credible and financially responsible organization.

What’s Missing

11. A responsive design that will scale down perfectly to accommodate a mobile phone or tablet screen.

12. a multimedia area with photo galleries and videos. A lot of people will go straight for the video section to get a better grasp of what the nonprofit does and it’s priorities.

Scrolling was popular a long time ago. But it was boring scrolling, all your scrolling effort just brought up text, text, and more text. Later scrolling was out and everything had to be “above the fold” which meant everyone had to click, click, click to get where they wanted to go – which was just as annoying. Now scrolling is back but since sites are more visual it’s much less boring. It’s even less boring when organizations use that main page real estate to tell a story as you scroll. In these examples, notice how the story is very vivid without a whole lot of text.

Fixed Position Menus

The scrolling revolution has brought about a need to keep the menu somewhere in sight so people don’t have to scroll all the way back up. You’ll often see a drop shadow at the bottom of the menu so it stands out from the page no matter where it’s at. In the last example, it’s used with a parallax scrolling site (where the background images move slower than the foreground images).

Simplified Donation Forms

I love this trend as it makes the donation process both shorter (which is always good for busy people), and straightforward (all the stuff is on one page so everyone knows what to expect); it also just looks clean design-wise. You’ll notice the examples still keep the most important parts – amount options, monthly gift option, and memorial or tribute gift option. Notice how the amount options are pared down as well – only 4 options plus “other”.https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime.cfm

Modal Screens

Modal pop-overs have been used by larger nonprofits for quite some time, and most often around the holidays. Now we are seeing more and more nonprofits use them for a variety of purposes and not just at the holidays! I think they are a great unobtrusive way to draw people in to take action on your site.

Get Involved = Get That Email Address

Getting that email address is becoming a serious priority and we’re seeing email signup forms everywhere. One place you might try for really great results? Front and center on your Get Involved page. You can never have too many pairs of shoes or too many email signup forms.

Texas Sized Photos & Text

Someone once told me that sites are looking like they are designed for the visually impaired; and let me tell you my aging eyeballs are enjoying this trend. Big photos and big text just grab our attention more and with all of us bombarded with data and images daily, it takes some extra effort to get our attention.

Main Page Real Estate for Donating

More real estate on the main page is being dedicated for direct asks- no more relaying on a big Donate Now button alone. We are seeing more quickie donation forms on the main page and some nonprofits are taking over the entire main page for big fundraising pitches at the end of the year.

Show Me the Numbers

Main page real estate is also being used to showcase impact numbers – often in an infographic style using any combination of photos, graphics and text. This is one of those places where you can repurpose your annual report parts – pulling out graphics to use for your main page – and, even better, linking to the annual report from there.

Video Headers

This is a fun trend, taking short video clips with no sound and using them as backgrounds in your header. It definitely attracts attention whether it’s one live action video looping over and over, a series of short video clips looping or turning static photos into a video slideshow.

News Mashups & Interactive News

This is just a really interesting way to display social media streams, blog articles, photos & videos all in one visual lineup. In the MVMT example below, they did a great job of featuring multimedia news stories while showcasing their numbers.

Extended Menus

It used to be that only universities had extended dropdown menus, but now we are seeing them more and more on other nonprofit websites. They are so much easier to use – regular dropdown menus are not that user friendly as you can lose your spot so easily. Extended dropdowns cover the width of the whole menu and give you the room to get creative, adding photos, video, testimonials alongside your submenu items.

More real estate for Connecting With Us

As nonprofits are adding more social media buttons to the mix, they need to make room. Tiny little buttons at the bottom or top of the page aren’t cutting it anymore. We are seeing a lot more focus on the Connect With Us area on the main page.

Interactive Maps

A lot of the bigger organizations have maps of their locations but we are seeing an increase in interactive maps for other purposes. In the Volunteer Louisiana example, map locations coordinate with videos of volunteers in those areas; Goodwill uses their map to highlight client stories. Maps can also be used to highlight where the problems are (the one’s your nonprofit is trying to fix) like the Counterspill map.

Circles

Circles have been heavily used in design in the past few years but mostly by ultra creative types; the trend seems to be hitting the nonprofit world more recently, possibly as infographics have inspired annual report designs and are now ending up on main pages!